| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
East Kennebago Mountain, ME |
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 | Trails: |
Logging road, boundary swath, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Monday, April 25, 2022 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
This may be a bit long, but the road has serious conditions any potential hiker should be aware of.
First, the basic directions that I have seen posted in more than a dozen different trail reports are generally correct in terms of distances and turns. I will highlight a few here and discuss the road conditions.
Second, I used my onboard GPS with the address of 2 Bridge St (I forget what township I used) to find the start of the access road. Although it did correctly identify the junction, it thought the road was on the right (coming from Rangeley) instead of the left. Since the junction is on a straight section, this might help keep you from driving past.
General conditions of the road are good for the first mile - passable with any vehicle. The second mile becomes rougher with more embedded and loose rocks and some ruts, both in the travel direction, diagonally across the road and straight across the road. All can be navigated with care with only a few hazards that might be worrisome for a low clearance vehicle. Mile 3 is much rougher with more and larger rocks, more and deeper ruts. This is very challenging to navigate through and not for the faint of heart. AWD is helpful and low clearance vehicles should not venture here. Mile 4 is even worse than mile 3 and is a real off-roading adventure, with my car noticeably tilting in every direction, but I think I kept all 4 wheels on the ground at all times. (I have 8.5 inch clearance and an off-road setting (which I engaged at mile 2 marker.))
Fortunately, there are several places to park for those who don't want to risk suspension parts, anything unprotected underneath and body panels.
Benchmarks may vary by .1 mi as I did not zero out my odometer at the start.
The first fork is at .9. Turn right onto East Kennebago Rd (signed on road just past fork. There are a number of signs posted at a board in the triangle of the fork and someone had handwritten "East Kennebago MT" with arrows pointing LEFT on one of the signs. Knowing logging has been going on during the last few years, I thought maybe there was a reroute. I followed this road 4 miles to the end, but it was nowhere close to EK. This road was much easier to drive and I got a moose viewing as a bonus, but a 40 minute delay in my destination.
Shortly after the first fork there is a yellow sign marking the 1 mile point and another fork where you need to bear left.
At 1.9 miles, Middle Road bears right (marked with large sign), so bear left. At 2.0 there is another large yellow sign with a number 2. (I didn't see any other mile markers, but they may be there.) At 2.1 the road turns sharply left and uphill and the first of the really rough conditions appear. There is also a grassy clearing where one could park if they wish.
At 2.6 mi it appears that the road takes a sharp turn left and down, but the correct path is straight/bear right. There is space to park along the turn if one wishes to stop here.
At 3.1 mi the road again turns a sharp left while another road continues straight (DO NOT TAKE THIS ROAD!) There is a handwritten sign on the right side of the road labeled "Kennebago Lookout" and pointing left. (It might say East, but my notes aren't clear) There are places along this turn for several cars to park.
At 3.3 and 3.9 mi there are clearings where one could park.
The road section from 3.9 to 4.3 (the "trailhead") is the roughest.
The trailhead area is very obvious with good views of Saddleback to the right and an ATV club sign indicating the trail stops here. Room for over a dozen cars if parked properly. If you made it here without damaging your vehicle or your ego, congrats.
I don't know if anyone does maintenance on this road, but these are the conditions as of the date of the report.
Also note that there are areas in each mile segment where a single car or two could park or turn around.
Finally, if you do park along route, note the road is steep in several areas and it will be one of the roughest road walks of your life. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow - Spring Snow, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Only 1 actual stream that is 2 step rock hop and several runoff flows that are stepovers. These are all on the first half of the logging road/footpath section. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Several downed trees hanging overhead, most easily walked under, except for one that needs trimming. (Sorry, forgot to bring my handsaw as this is my first hike this year and I don't quite have it together yet.) These are all on the logging road/footpath section. Several blowdowns on rest of path, easily stepped over or around.
One older report indicated that the yellow stake marking the turn onto the boundary path was missing. It is back in place. Without the stake, it would be very difficult to find the turn, at least in winter conditions.
Summit sign and canister intact.
Since this is not a maintained trail, this is just for info purposes. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
In summer this might be OK for pups. Lack of water after the first stream, but is a short hike. No ledges or scrambles. |
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 | Bugs: |
Didn't notice any. |
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 | Lost and Found: |
My boot at the bottom of the deepest posthole. But recovered it with mad hand digging skills. |
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 | Comments: |
Generally conditions are late winter/early spring with every condition available (except for unavoidable mud and elevated monorail). I just checked the most prevalent ones.
Hike is in three segments. First is the continuation of the logging road you drove/walked in on, which narrows to a path. Second is the segment that follows a boundary line with faint yellow marks on trees from time to time. Third is a herd path to the summit. However, due to snow conditions and no visable path, this was a true bushwhack today.
Road starts with moderate climb with small patches of snow and mud, all avoidable. About at .4-.5 mi and 2800, trail becomes completely snow covered. Firm on way in and barebooting was fine, with a few 6inch or less postholes. Mashed potatotes on the way out, with more frequent and slightly deeper postholes, maybe 8 inches. Kept microspikes on for the descent until consistent bare ground.
Yellow stake was easy to spot marking start of boundary segment. Without this, at least in winter, it would be easy to miss turn unless you are measuring with GPS. My readings were .88 miles each way on my Garmin Fenix. Other reports have said .9 mi.
Boundary segment is mostly snow covered, with patches of blue ice, consolidated snow, frozen granular, mashed potatoes, some bare ground, and a couple of short patches of 1 to 2 feet of soft snow where some post holing is unavoidable, but these are short. I didn't notice many blazes on ascent as I was watching footing. There were sections where a footpath was noticeable. On the sections where I could not discern a footpath, there was a somewhat obvious opening in the trees that I followed. On the ascent I turned a little too early as I was afraid I may have gone too far as the path appeared to be about to go downhill and there was a blowdown area on the summit side. As I discovered on the descent, I should have gone another 100 feet or 2 and there were two rocks marking the summit segment and providing a much easier path around the blowdowns.
Since I turned a bit soon, it took me some time and numerous deep postholes 1.5-2.5 feet to come across faint remnants of some wither paths, some snowshoe and some boots. These were always transitory and at some point would run into 2-3 feet deep soft snow with no signs of any trail anywhere. Where I could stay on these old trail remnants, the snow was more solid and there were fewer and shallower post holes. Also these trails seemed to frequently switchback rather than go straight up, which was the bearing I was trying to stay on. I found many more sections of these trails on the descent as the higher vantage point made them easier to spot, so I was able to avoid some of the ascent postholes. I did pass through one small section of spruce that weren't too thick, but it was easier to posthole through them (with 1-2 foot postholes) rather than 2-3 foot ones when I tried to skirt it. There was a faint set of footprints that started to skirt it on the descent, but I post holed deeply even on those, so stuck with the devil I knew.
My Fenix lost signal shortly after the boundary turn and didn't pick up again until halfway through the bushwhack, so I don't have any distance or elevation stats worth anything, but the timer worked. It took me 1 hr 48 min from stake to summit on the ascent and only 54 minutes on the descent. (The ascent did include a 20 minute digging session that was not repeated on the descent as I avoided that entire section.) From prior reports and studying the map, it appears each of these segments is between .6 and .8 mi. each.
In contrast, the road segment took 27 minutes on the ascent and 26 minutes on the descent. Both of those times include some brief standing rests from slogging through the snow.
Snowshoes might have been helpful, especially in the deep snow sections, but these were all short and the surrounding sections were fine with microspikes. Also, some of the snow was so soft that you probably would have postholed even with those. Also, much of this would have been avoided if I had reached the traditional herd path and stayed on that path.
It is probably obvious by now, but I am not an experienced winter hiker. That's why I tried this hike instead of a maintained trail because I don't want to be THAT guy who trashes the trail for others. I decided that if I couldn't do this in microspikes, I would turn around. But each time I was about to, I found a trail remnant - and I really did not want to drive that road again!
If I decide to actually hike in the winter, I have snowshoes and will learn how to use them, I promise.
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 | Name: |
SpartyHikerfromME |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2022-04-25 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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